How to format your references using the Microbiology Spectrum citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Microbiology Spectrum. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

Weimerskirch H. 2013. Ecology. Seabirds--individuals in colonies. Science 341:35–36.

A journal article with 2 authors

Bell G, Gonzalez A. 2011. Adaptation and evolutionary rescue in metapopulations experiencing environmental deterioration. Science 332:1327–1330.

A journal article with 3 authors

Oye KA, Lawson JCH, Bubela T. 2015. Drugs: Regulate “home-brew” opiates. Nature 521:281–283.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Lu X, Wu S, Gou J, Pan Y. 2014. An atmospheric-pressure, high-aspect-ratio, cold micro-plasma. Sci Rep 4:7488.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

Boussabaine A. 2013. Risk Pricing Strategies for Public-Private Partnerships Projects. John Wiley & Sons, Oxford.

An edited book

Wißmann P. 2007. Electrical Resistivity of Thin Metal Films. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

Alarcón B, Lucas S, Meseguer J. 2010. A Dependency Pair Framework for A ∨ C-Termination, p. 35–51. In Ölveczky, PC (ed.), Rewriting Logic and Its Applications: 8th International Workshop, WRLA 2010, Held as a Satellite Event of ETAPS 2010, Paphos, Cyprus, March 20-21, 2010, Revised Selected Papers. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Microbiology Spectrum.

Blog post

Luntz S. 2014. Dark Gamma Ray Bursts Obscured By Dust. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/dark-gamma-ray-bursts-obscured-dust/. Retrieved 30 October 2018.

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

Government Accountability Office. 1996. AIP Funding for the Nation’s Largest Airports. RCED-96-219R. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Tabak S. 2015. Aspiring States at the International Court of Justice. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University, Washington, DC.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

Walsh MW. 2012. Tighter Rules Are Issued On Municipal Bond Deals. New York Times.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (1).
This sentence cites two references (1, 2).
This sentence cites four references (1–4).

About the journal

Full journal title	Microbiology Spectrum
Abbreviation	Microbiol. Spectr.
ISSN (online)	2165-0497
Scope	Cell Biology Genetics Physiology Ecology General Immunology and Microbiology Infectious Diseases Microbiology (medical)